Beyond tribalism; How well does your religious label serve you?

I've made this point again and again. Religion just doesn't come up in my day-to-day life, unless some proselytizers come to the door. Before i began discussing things online, i could go from one year to the next without ever discussing religion once.

I did not question religion and society at large due to upbringing or education, when I was young. I developed my attitude in spite of these things. By the time my atheism was settled, I had not had a class in science, at least not one advanced to mention evolution and technology. My family was not anti religion. I am certain they would have been shocked had I confided in them my lack of faith. I have mentioned on this forum more than once that I tried unsuccessfully to get indoctrinated by religion, but it failed to take. I never mentioned my atheism to another soul until people began trying to force me to accept their faith as my faith. People who view the world in terms of religion must feel we are a religious species, I suppose because they conceive no choice in the matter. If that is how they feel it is no skin off my nose. Just don't try to inflict that view upon me and we will never have to argue in such matters.

Sorry, I don't buy it. The experience of atheists isn't different in any real way from the experience of any other human.

The idea that atheists as a group aren't like anyone else because they aren't part of a group is not only logically inconsistent, it is also unrealistic. Atheists are human, and American and some even participate in religious activities.

Humans are social animals. We live in society and makes bonds with people around us. We get our values and world view and ideas about how we fit in the world from the community we are a part of. Religion has nothing to do with this.

If you don't have a sense of community that has nothing to do with whether you believe in God or not. It means you aren't social and there are people of every religious belief that fit in that description. It certainly has nothing to do with atheism.

I was brought up in evangelical Christianity where the "testimonial" is a common ritual where a person talks about how they "came to Jesus". It struck me as a little funny reading similar testimonials about how people "came to Atheism",

Now that we have Atheist testimonials, I suppose this could turn into a kind of Atheist revival meeting.

My point is that being atheist isn't responsible for making someone non-social. There are lots of atheists who are well connected in a strong community (religious or not). There are also religious people are are not social (I thought you were making the same point).

The word atheist should just mean "someone who doesn't believe in any deity". That definition has nothing to do with how a person lives or whether they are religious or not.

The idea that atheists as a group aren't like anyone else because they aren't part of a group is not only logically inconsistent, it is also unrealistic. Atheists are human, and American and some even participate in religious activities.

but they're not part of an atheist group - they're just individual atheists

The chances of us having an acknowledged atheist or agnostic as president seem unimaginable.

Somehow I do not think that would matter all that must to the people that for example voted for Obama and your comment could have been make concerning having a black man as President or a Catholic a few generations before.

Next see President Jeffereson and his very public statements so we already had have such a President way back in the days that is claimed to be the good old days by the far right Christians of today.

Hell Jefferson was attacked in the press of his days for being an Atheist during his whole career.

Quote:

"And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerve in the brain of Jupiter. But may we hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with this artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of this most venerated reformer of human errors." (Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823)

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maxdancona

1

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Fri 15 Mar, 2013 07:09 am

@ehBeth,

Quote:

but they're not part of an atheist group - they're just individual atheists

... who are dreaming that someday one of their own might be elected president...

Group meetings at least once a week. Pot luck dinners. A lot of children's sports are centered around the church, Upward soccer / basketball for instance.

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IRFRANK

2

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Fri 15 Mar, 2013 07:32 am

@ehBeth,

Sports. College football games here in the south have an invocation. Many of our group activities start with a prayer. Not uncommon here in the south. No, I do not attend others churches. It's not unusual for groups to sit down to dinner and start to pray. But, there is usually no expectation of participation.